It seems like winter has returned with a vengeance here! Still, it was a good excuse to trek around some bookshops for National Bookshop Day on Saturday. Of course I bought several books, but first, what actually arrived in the letterbox this week…

Thanks to Hachette Australia, Penguin UK and Goodreads and I had two parcels last Friday! From Hachette was Sophie Hannah’s new book, A Game for All the Family. This looks to be a standalone book rather than part of the Spilling CID series, which is no problems because Sophie’s books are always twisty turner thrillers. This book is about Justine and her daughter, who move out of London to a new life. Justine thinks her life will be much easier until she’s told her daughter’s best friend doesn’t exist and then scary phone calls start…

Nina Stibbe’s fiction debut Man at the Helmis about Lizzie and her sister who move to a small English village. Their mother sticks out amongst the residents, so the girls hatch a plan to find a man to marry their mother – with hilarious results.

Now for my own spoils. This is my haul from National Bookshop Day.

I’m sure Judy Blume needs no introduction. Her new release, In the Unlikely Event, is about Miri returning to her hometown, but not for good reasons. It’s to commemorate events back in the 1950s when events tore a community apart but through it all, they learned strength and love.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll introduces us to Ani, a woman you would love to hate. Ani finally has her chance to tell her side of the story from an incident years ago – but can she keep up her perfect demeanour?

Michael Robotham is back with his latest thriller, Close Your Eyes. Joe O’Loughlin is drawn into a new case, a double murder, after a media leak causes public ire. But as Joe finds a link with other attacks, those closest to him will also find themselves in danger.

I tracked down a copy of Haruki Murakami’s Wind/Pinball, two novels released officially in English for the first time. The story is about the narrator and his friend Rat, first during a break at university and then after he moves to Tokyo. The novels are published back to back, each with a gorgeous cover.

Emergency, edited by Dr Simon Judkins is real life stories from doctors working in the emergency departments of Australia’s hospitals. I think it will be a fascinating read, combining the heartbreak with triumph and the just plain weird. I’m also thrilled to see some former colleagues in there!